


1914

by SSparkle



Series: Morality AU [1]
Category: Awesome Land (Cartoon)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Betrayal, Corruption, Crying, Heroes to Villains, M/M, Magical Artifacts, Manslaughter, Morality AU, Murder, POV Second Person, Panic Attacks, Prequel, War, well not hero perse but not evil
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-02
Updated: 2018-02-09
Packaged: 2018-10-14 01:17:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 1,786
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10525860
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SSparkle/pseuds/SSparkle
Summary: Your instincts tell you to panic, to flail around wildly and jump off the table, but you can’t do that either.You can’t do anything.





	1. you can lead a horse to water (but you cant make him murder)

**Author's Note:**

> this story is basically a origin story for paintbrush in the morality au?? someone save him,

The first thing you hear is the noise of a pencil against paper and some distant muttering.

 

The one of the left -- you don’t know how you know what left is -- Doctor Xander sighs and writes down some more stuff as he stares down at you. 

 

“Wavelengths?” He asks and turns to the one on the right -- Doctor Arcadian -- who gives him a quick thumbs up before looking back at some notes on the table.

 

You go to open your mouth to speak, to ask what’s going on, how you know them and why you’re here, but nothing moves. You _can't_ move.

 

Your instincts tell you to panic, to flail around wildly and jump off the table, but you can’t do that either.

 

You can’t do anything.

 

Before your thoughts can go any further, Arcadian takes off his glasses and sighs. “It’s too powerful.”

 

“What?” Xander says, turning his swivel chair to look at the other scientist, his face somehow a mix of anger and worry. “What do you mean?”

 

“The paintbrush.” Something in your head goes off and starts shouting at you, but not in annoying way. You don’t know what this feeling is, but it makes you happy. You still don’t know who they are and what the paintbrush is though, as familiar as it feels.

 

“I thought the canister was the most powerful one--”

 

“Chaos cylinder.” Arcadian corrects him.

 

“Right.”

 

“But yes, that data was correct. A month ago.” Arcadian’s chest stops moving for a second. “Things have changed.”

 

“Arcade,” Xander says in a soft voice before putting his hand on his shoulder. “Tell me.”

 

Arcadian laughs dryly. “We’ve created something more powerful than the universe.”

 

A silence fills the room, and if you could speak up you _would_ , just to make things less awkward. It feels like you’ve just made a bad joke and the two are silently judging you. You’ve never made a joke before.

 

“What are we going to do? We can’t just destroy it, that’ll just make the other ones--”

 

“Unstable. I know.” Arcadian sounds more tired every second, his hands on his head. “I--I think I know what to do. I’ll talk about it later, okay?”

 

Xander reluctantly moves away before grabbing some papers and walking out the door. Arcadian sits in silence for a few moments before doing the same. He slowly looks back at you before closing the door.

 

It’s dark, and you’re left with your thoughts again. You still don’t know what that is.


	2. discovery (and denial in the form of screaming)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> arcadian visits again, xander isn't with him, and he has a knife.

When Arcadian comes back again, Xander isn’t with him. He has a knife instead. You don’t like the look of knives.

 

While the two were gone, you’d been thinking a lot about what was going on. Why you knew who they were, left and right, the paintbrush. You still don’t fully understand it.

 

Suddenly the world goes dark again, like when Arcadian turned off the lights, except you can still hear him muttering something about carving. This darkness, however, doesn’t feel like the one you’d experienced before. 

 

You realise you can move your head.

 

_Wait._

 

_Your **head**_.

 

Like the other day you start flailing wildly, only this time you can actually do it. A few distressed noises leave your mouth (you have that too?!) as you run around in the black, which seems to keep going on and on. Arcadian’s muttering is blocked out by your footsteps and panicking, although you can faintly hear him talking about wood chips getting everywhere. 

 

There’s a weird pain in the back off your head as well, but you’re still freaking out so it’s barely noticeable. After a while it stops anyway, around the time you stop running around in circles. Arcadian seems pleased with himself, but you don’t know why. For some reason, you feel a little weaker. 

 

He leaves again, right as you look down and see a completely white, featureless human body looking back at you in a reflection.

 

You scream.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i know this one is short but work with me lads,


	3. please don't touch me (i'm delicate)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> one good and one evil.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [paintbrush voice] damn im really in this bitch,

You don’t know anything about human beauty standards, but you’d say that this is a average looking form that you’ve chosen for yourself. It took a few weeks of planning, but you finally found something that feels right. You straighten your bowtie.

 

Lately things have been awkward. Xander keeps slamming the door on Arcadian and sometimes the latter throws paper at the other. You don’t know why they’re acting so aggressive towards each other all of the sudden, you were sure they were ‘in a relationship’. You wonder if that will ever happen to you, and if it entails with said person hating you. You hope not.

 

You wonder why you still can’t move in the real world, although you can in this weird little plane of existence you have to yourself. At least in this one you have some sort of free will. 

 

You start wondering if the reason Xander and Arcadian are so mad at each other is because you did something. The thought leaves you with a bad feeling in your gut. You don’t want people to be sad because of you. Sometimes when you think about it your vision gets kind of blurry and your eyes get wet.

 

One night you’re sitting there, looking at your reflection and thinking. Something feels off, wrong even, and you don’t know what it is. Before you can think about what’s wrong, there's a loud noise and you quickly look out from the void to see what's happening in your room.

 

Xander is standing at the door, a determined look on his face as he looks over at you and you feel your metaphorical heart stop. You don’t like some of the stuff Arcadian has been saying about him lately. Before you can say anything, although you know he won’t hear you, he quickly grabs you off the table you’ve been trapped on for weeks, and you feel a little relief despite your grim situation.

 

For a split second you’re able to look back and see your old home before Xander runs off. The walls are covered in blueprints and notes, only one of which you can make out.

 

_‘Only two people in this world can use the paintbrush, one good and one evil.’_

 

Looking at the glint in Xander’s eyes as he runs off into the night, you think you know which one he is. You think you know what and who you are as well.


	4. in the void (no one can hear you)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> xander kind of fucks up.

You haven’t seen Arcadian in a while. Xander doesn’t seem keen on talking about him either. In fact, Xander has barely talked at all lately. Even when he’s planning something he doesn’t mutter to himself like Arcadian used to do. 

 

You’ve been put back on a table again, and it’s starting to get on your nerves. For the first few days you were still in denial, thinking that somehow, you were a tiny paralyzed human that could somehow enter another plane of existence.

 

But that was unbelievably stupid. _You_ were unbelievably stupid.

 

You’re Paintbrush. 

 

You’re about to try and get some rest before you hear the noise of footsteps, and your eyes snap open. Xander is walking towards you, back in a lab coat that he used to wear during your first days, and he looks close to a smirk. He has something planned.

 

_One good, and one evil._ The words repeat in your head like a broken record as he takes you off to another room. It’s oddly quiet, and it hurts knowing you can’t break the tension. He holds his breath, letting his face return to a blank slate as he slowly opens the door. Your eyes widen.

 

There’s a person there, tied up and crying. They keep saying they want to go home. You don’t know what to do. You’re frozen in place.

 

You start shouting, although Xander can’t hear you. He’s far too interested in whatever he has planned, blueprints and all. Now you’re sobbing, and your tears are fogging up your reflection. You feel like if Arcadian could see you he’d call you pathetic. 

 

_One good, and one evil._ The phrase keeps repeating in your head and you think you’re going mad, it keeps getting louder and louder and you _can’t stop it because the cries get louder and you’d rather hear anything but the person begging for their life you just want to to stop you want to be back with Arcadian when everything was okay and--_

 

Suddenly a surge of power hits you and it gets hard to breathe. You’re choking on your own tears and ripping at the sleeves of your shirt in an attempt to make it go away. It won’t stop.

 

“One good, and one evil.”

 

A voice that isn’t your own says the phrase and your breathing stops as you realise its Xander saying it.

 

“I realised I could use the paintbrush. We fought and fought and,” he stops for a moment, “I had to leave. Arcadian thought I was the evil one. I’m going to prove him right.” Something in his voice sounds detached, barely paying attention to what he’s about to do. It makes you feel worse.

 

“I’m sorry. I’ll tell your family you died in an accident.” 

 

Before you can even process the words you suddenly feel something warm on your physical form. You don’t want to look back out. You want to stay in the void and pretend this never happened. But you do.

 

You can barely see but the room smells like metal and for a second you think of Arcadian before you push the thought out of your mind. Slowly, with shaking hands, Xander puts you back on the table. You’re both covered in blood and there's a dead body in the corner. 

 

It feels awful.


	5. keep praying (maybe one day he'll answer you)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OK WOW HOLY SHIT this might be a surprise, i know it is for me lmao, but looking thru my old stories thiss was the only one i currently want to update? i really feel like i had smth going on here. my apologies if this chapter is absolute trash compared to the others, its been nearly a full year since i wrote a fic and im extremely rusty.

It feels like it’s been **months.**

In actuality, it’s been a few hours at most. Which makes you laugh a little, since there’s no clocks in the void.

Xander hasn’t moved the dead body. It reeks of death and there’s blood pooling on the floor and you can’t look away because everything else is so _boring_ now. Xander is quiet at his desk and he isn’t saying anything and you _just want to reach out and slap him across the face._

But you already know you can’t.

There’s still a dull ache in your head, similar to the one you got before you looked at the room and saw the still twitching body of that poor, defenseless person that Xander killed for his own selfish means.

He makes you _sick._

All you want to do is run back to Arcadian, your _father_ , and pray that he’ll forgive you for everything awful you’ve done, and everything you _will_ do, if your co-creator decides to keep you.

You want to be erased.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i know this is only like. 100 words and im REALLY sorry about that but i swear once i get more inspiration ill write more i really like this fic


End file.
